MUS2026-214 - museum specimen
Oyo palm-midrib bullroarer pair
Oyo, Nigeria - West Africa
Function not recorded
Source term: Bullroarer
Palm leaf took the place of wood in one member of this Oyo pair. The midrib makes a long, slim shaft, while its companion keeps the more familiar form of a wooden blade on a twisted-hide thong.
'Bullroarer' of palm mid-rib.
Pitt Rivers Museum 1926.91.21, object description
- Object
- Two bullroarers bought together: one a slim, pointed blade cut from a palm-leaf midrib, 226 x 18 mm, with its cord wrapped around the shaft; the other wooden, 196 x 40 mm, on a long twisted-hide thong.
- Function
- Not recorded.
- Source
- Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, accessions 1926.91.21 and 1926.91.22, one purchase. 1926.91.21 (UID prm-object-39582): materials Palm Leaf Plant and String, carved, 226 x 18 mm; museum description "'Bullroarer' of palm mid-rib. [DCF Court Team 17/2/2003]"; cultural group Yoruba; provenance Africa > Western Africa > Nigeria, Oyo; made before 1926…
- Source location
Page references
PRM 1926.91.21 (prm-object-39582); PRM 1926.91.22
- Source confidence
- medium Oyo town anchor from the record's sole geographical field; no quarter, compound, findspot or use site is recorded, and the field collector is unknown, so the point locates the town named on the accession.